January 2009 Archives

Brad Willis, fresh from covering events at the PokerStars LAPT Vina del Mar event, arrived home to find more news to report... Just a few days ago, we stood in a very long line at the Santiago, Chile airport. It snaked back and forth between the stanchions for 45...more

It's all for nothing. That will be a brief explanation for the $276 bestowed upon war18 and everfrost last weekend after they each won in the Weekly Round 2 events, beating thousands to the top prize. They made it a USA one-two both days ahead of the usual eclectic mix...more

No one ever won a poker tournament without making the odd bluff, hitting the odd card, laying the odd trap and making the occasional hero call that might also have sent them to the rail. The 28-year-old Moritz Kranich from Hamburg, Germany, has shown all the requisite skills and...more

Fifty percent of the starting field here in Deauville were French. Of the 48 players who have cashed so far at Casino Barriere this week, 21 grew up beneath le tricolore. And tomorrow's final table, which begins in Normandy at 2pm, will feature eight players. Five of them, you...more

by Brad Willis and Change 100 Vina del Mar, Chile is luxury without pretension. To wit: the Hotel Del Mar is a five-star joint with a bingo parlor on the first floor. The rooms are as well-appointed as any on the PokerStars tours and the staff is friendly enough...more

When we started today the general consensus was that we wouldn't get anywhere near the last 32 player stage, which is what is usually expected on day two of an EPT. All the hallmarks of a long day in the saddle were plain to see: nearly 250 players and...more

If Day 1 of the LAPT Vina del Mar was marked by action, speed, and players' complete and utter willingness to get in there and gamble, Day 2 was its polar opposite. It took a 15-hour session to whittle the field from 63 players down to the nine who...more

At around 7pm this evening, media row might have been mistaken for the place to be. It resolutely isn't - let's get that clear - but in quick succession we had visits from the World Champion Peter Eastgate and then Luca Pagano, the record holder for cashes on the...more

Sixty-three. It's a number of more significance than you might think. For instance, when a horse and a donkey make sweet, sweet equine love, the result is often an offspring with 63 chromosomes. It also happens to be the number of players who will play Day 2 of the...more

Many attractions lure the world traveller to these parts. The picturesque streets are only the backdrop to the town's annual film festival, and year-round Deauville is one of the centres of French horse racing. After this week, it will become time for Deauville to be recognised once again as...more

After a couple of weeks of domination by the United States, and the odd Brazilian, last weekend's WR2 events were world affairs. South Africa has proven to be another boom nation for poker thanks in part to the success Team PokerStars Pro Raymond Rahme had in the World Series of...more

They used to be known for their soccer team. Now it seems poker is the new national game with a flood of great players emerging, not least Team PokerStars Pros Andre Akkari and World Series bracelet winner Alexander Gomes, who last weekend scored an incredible fourth place in the PokerStars...more

Every step around Paradise Island is an assault on the senses: vibrant colours dazzle from the sea, sand and bartenders' shirts, while the sound of calypso music pipes through the undergrowth 24-hour a day. Strangers are greeted with warm handshakes wherever they go, and the smells and tastes of...more

If you live in Australia and New Zealand, apart from benefitting from the pleasures of sunshine and summer right now, you also stand to benefit from the newest edition to the PokerStars calendar, the Australia New Zealand Poker Tour. This unique series of events, which kick off next month, come...more

Around these parts, if you want to sit down for a decent meal, you are advised to get a reservation. Otherwise, you may go hungry or end up eating a tuna sandwich out of a deli cooler. If you have the right amount of money in your pocket, you...more

Any player can win a poker tournament in any number of circumstances. An individual can sometimes go on the biggest rush of their life and make all the right decisions at all the pivotal moments; another can just get lucky time and again. But sometimes, every now and then,...more

This is a day that might have lasted long into the night and, quite possibly, deep into tomorrow. Compressing a field of 102 players to the 32 needed for day four's action could easily have taken 12 hours or more. As it is, I write this only six hours...more

At the start of Day 2, 380 players entered the Imperial Ballroom with a dream dancing around their heads. That dream? Winning the 2009 PCA and taking home a cool $3 million. Each player had their future in their own hands and a once-in-a-lifetime chance to transform a pipe...more

Brad Willis reports from the PCA... If we let our imaginations wander, we see a benevolent poker deity sitting on a cloud of cash with a quaint abacus at his fingertips. It is he who will decide for what these tenacious PCA runners will fight. In our wildest of...more

Not exactly East meets West in last weekend's WR2 events, the first of the new year - a Russian one-two on Saturdays followed by an American win in Sunday's version of the flagship freeroll. Both winners, desso777 and AcesWrapped took a first prize of $276 and all for an entry...more

The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure might have outgrown its name these days. Really it's more of an extravaganza than a plain old adventure: countless tournaments, thousands of players, millions of bucks. We're only just through the first of six days and we've already seen enough action to last right through...more